Requiem Aeternam Comments On Latest Album "Destiny-Man"

Requiem Aeternam has issued the following statement about the band's latest album "Destiny-Man," and the band coining the term "Philosophical Metal:"

"Requiem Aeternam are the creators of ‘Philosophical Metal’, genre which entails not only philosophical lyrics, but also music that gets intertwined with philosophical thinking.Destiny-Man, third opus by Requiem Aeternam, has become the First Official Album of Philosophical Metal Music in the world...

"Requiem Aeternam have struggled to create a new style of music since their beginning in 1995, in which philosophy slowly started being an important matter to write both their music and lyrics. Their first record, Eternally Dying (1998), already shows clear philosophical tendencies, in particular through lyrics such as ‘Nature & Principle’, ’Lost in the Unknown’, and title song ’Eternally Dying’. However, this album cannot be cataloged as purely Philosophical since its music is mostly influenced by melodic black-death metal, and there is not a strong correlation between music and lyrics. Philosopher (2004), their second record, contains the first song of pure Philosophical Metal, ‘Logos’. In this song there is a notable relationship between lyrics (based on the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, ‘the obscure’) and music, style that they named at the time ‘Dialectical Metal’. Yet, Philosopher still has very important influences of death/black/thrash/doom and other already-existent forms of heavy metal music, even though all the lyrics of Philosopher are completely philosophical. It is Destiny-Man (2010), their third opus, which takes the podium in heavy metal history.

"Why ‘Destiny-Man’ is the First Official Album of Philosophical Metal, ever: Each song is inspired –not based– on classical composers, having chosen 10 different composers who are quite different (this is important given that these composers, even though they were not philosophers, were deep thinkers of music -which is one the characteristic of this new genre: to think deeply and sincerely the music as well as the lyrics). However, there is no direct influence of these masters of musical composition, or any existent metal band or any other band of any kind. Thus, every track is a micro-record in potency (there is almost no correlation between the songs, yet the final outcome is a unity), adding a total of 10 tracks, number that refers to Pythagoras, who probably was the first or one of the first men who wrote music in paper, giving to this art a transcendental character. Each song in particular has some numerical specifications:

"The lyrics of ‘Destiny-Man’ are based on the upcoming second book by Jose Romero Sum (in which they will be included), also named ‘Destiny-Man’, work that should be released soon. Both the record and the book have the same art cover, since they are part of the same project. This book contains an innovative treaty of philosophy, in which the main subject is the ‘Philosophy of Destiny’: the doctrine of the ‘Destiny-Man’.

"Jose Romero Sum & Requiem Aeternam have worked for 15 years to create a new discipline: Philosophical Music is their outcome -Philosophical Metal is simply a particular case-: deep combination of music and philosophy, where music composition and philosophical thinking get intertwined.

"Both the Requiem Aeternam’s third album and Jose Romero Sum’s second book are sufficient testimony to prove this artistic achievement, even though Philosophical Metal already started in 1995-1996, years during which the first Requiem Aeternam's song, ‘Emergent’ (1995), was released and the first philosophical writings by Romero Sum were factualized: ‘The essence of art is the individual’ (1996).

"Few other metal bands have already made some moves in the direction of Philosophical Metal, but none with enough strength to be considered purely Philosophical Metal, if the definition given in the first paragraph is to be followed. Hence, Requiem Aeternam is undoubtedly the First Band of Philosophical Metal, for what the beginning of this new genre of music can be set in 1995, year where Requiem Aeternam came into being."